Virtual Car Window Tablets?

GM has been moving in the technology direction for some time now, so it’s no surprise when GM comes out with a new in-board GPS or some other contraption. But, the tech world was surprised to hear that GM has created a new gadget that may be popping up on GM vehicle windows in the near future: window tablets. What, exactly, is a window tablet? Well, picture your average car window. Now, consider what the average car window might look like if it were a virtual tablet of sorts.

That’s right, GM is working on making car and truck windows that act like tablets. With the help of some graduate students from Israel’s Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, GM tablet windows just might be the window of the future. Why would you want a vehicle that has windows that act like tablets? Here are a few reasons why GM’s new tablet windows might become popular overnight.

Education and Play

Essentially, the new tablet windows have been designed for kids. Since kids are the ones who are usually stuck in the back of a vehicle on a long journey, the graduate students who worked with GM on this project created tablet windows that kids could draw on. Further, the new windows also feature a small cartoon character that kids can see on a car window. As a vehicle speeds up, the cartoon character starts to run. As the car slows down, the small character slows down too. Using a pointer finger as a tool, kids can make this character do all kinds of things.

In addition to art and cartoons, the new GM windows also provide kids with educational material. One example that GM showed press included a large globe that pinpointed the location of a vehicle. In this manner, kids can see where they are on a global scale. GM has stated that additional features will be added to the windows in the future. While all of these things are novel, GM’s tablet windows have not been included in any GM vehicles yet.

Some Considerations

While the idea of a car window that acts like a tablet is truly innovative, one has to imagine that the cost of repairing a window of this sort would be very high. In addition, a tablet window might drive the overall price of a vehicle through the roof. Then again, GM doesn’t have any plans to put the tablet windows into cars anytime soon, so the company has plenty of time to perfect any pricing or other glitches.

The very idea of a window that doubles as a tablet is an incredible one, but GM is not alone in the technical arena. Many other car companies are currently attempting to find some way to connect vehicles to cloud computing. What’s the point of all this? Sometime, in the near future, vehicles as you know them will no longer exist. Instead, your vehicle will double as a computer that you can use when you’re on the road.